Marketers are feeling pressure to use data-driven customer intelligence but most still rely on intuition. A recent study found that only 5% of marketers have enough statistical knowledge to generate insights from data. While most underuse data, top performers are comfortable with ambiguity, ask questions, and focus on higher-order goals to filter noise and apply relevant insights. The document discusses how managers in India should seek these qualities in marketers and promote effective data use given India's unpredictable consumer behavior and invalidity of past experiences.

2. First Insight
First Insight

3. Marketers are
feeling the
pressure to
embrace data-
driven customer
intelligence
capabilities.

4. A strong appetite for data is one of the
most sought after qualities for
managers.

5. A recent study showed that most
marketers still rely on intuition while
those who use data use it poorly.

6. Marketers use information from
previous decisions or intuition
based about customers in making
new decisions. But in today’s
volatile business environment,
judgment built from past
experience is increasingly
unreliable.

7. A majority of the marketers struggle
with statistics. Only 5% of the marketers
have enough statistical knowledge to
generate insights from data.

8. Second Insight

9. While most marketers underuse data
a small fraction of them thrive on it.
They love data and all forms of
feedback which includes data on
marketing effectiveness, input from
managers or peers, and frequent
interaction with others

10. These marketers are
severe
underperformers.
They don’t have
enough statistical
aptitude to use the
data effectively.
They change the
direction of
workflow so often
that they end up
losing the sight of

11. Top performing
managers have the
following three
qualities-
1. Comfort with
ambiguity
2. Ability to ask
questions
3. Narrow focus
on higher-order
goals.

12. Together these
traits help the
marketers to
focus on what is
important, filter
out noise and
apply only the
insights that
matter.

13. Managerial Relevance

14. The first insight is relevant to a manager
in India as it informs us about the
qualities that managers are looking for to
be present inside marketers. It also
informs us about the dangers that lie
when marketers use their past
experiences and intuition to predict
future demand.

15. A manager in India cannot rely on
intuition for predicting demands of
products. India being a country with
huge population predicting demands
is highly unfavourable as the
consumer’s behaviour is highly
unpredictable. Due to this past
experiences can become invalid at
any point of time.

16. The second insight states the qualities
that should be present in a marketer.
A manager in India should be able to
block the unnecessary information
and derive relevant insights from the
data which is important. To drive
effective data use the managers
should constantly motivate the
marketers by reiterating business
goals, sensitize marketers to data
interpretation mistakes, and teach
them to put data on the front.

17. A presentation by Jyotsana
Manglani
UCER, Allahabad